Gender Responsive Policing

Gender refers to the roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviors and values that society ascribes to men and women. ‘Gender’ therefore refers to learned differences between men and women, while ‘sex’ refers to the biological differences between males and females. Gender roles vary widely within and across cultures, and can change over time. Gender refers not simply to women or men but also to the relationship between them.

Working Definition of Gender-responsive Community-based Policing

A working definition of gender-responsive community-based policing can be

formulated as a partnership approach between police and the public. It is building on strong trust relationships in which the police are seen as supporting members of the community. It is an organizational strategy, which allows the police and community to work together in new ways to solve problems of crime, disorder and safety, and it is a part of law enforcement and access to justice approach with focus on crime prevention and control mechanism.

Specific Objective

Gender-responsive community-based policing is implemented as prevention

strategy against violence and crime, by selected communities, in partnership with key stakeholders.

Existing community-based policing highlight the following issues:

_ Potential for gender-responsive community-based policing exists, though

further clarity is needed amongst practitioners on in what that constitutes or what its basic principles are.

_ It can be a powerful mechanism to promote basic citizenship issues and

achieve human rights of women, vulnerable and excluded groups of people.

_ Sustainability issues, particularly in NGO-led community policing initiatives, require considerable attention.

_ Baselines for assessing impact do not exist in a consistent manner in NGO-led community-based policing initiatives.

Gender-responsive community-based policing is:

· A partnership approach between police and the public built on respect of local diversity and context using mechanisms that ensure that the safety and security needs of the community members – especially the vulnerable groups – are addressed.

· Building on strong trust, relationships in which the police and the police

department are seen as supporting members of the community.

· An organizational strategy that allows the police and community to work together in new ways to solve problems of crime, disorder and safety.

· A part of law enforcement and access to justice approach with focus on crime prevention and control mechanism.

So, the ultimate goals of gender-responsive community policing are to:

· Make communities a better and safer place for all their members.

· Contribute towards making the police force a more professional, responsive and accountable institution.

Gender Responsive Policing and Pakistan

Today, circumstances witnessed that how police organizations in Pakistan continue to be insensitive to the protection of the women. Even with over 60 years of policing history, the forces in this land are still only touching bare minimum standards of gender-balanced policing

There are many reasons for the present state of affairs. Policies regarding the hiring of women police officers are inconsistent, with each province going its separate way. While a quota has been ensured for women to join the police service through what we call ‘affirmative action’, the actual hiring has been slow and gradual. Sons of police martyrs are automatically inducted to the force, showing overwhelming male dominance.

Police training colleges have very few female instructors. The training syllabus makes no mention of important legislative mechanisms such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2004. No serious effort has been made to revise the curriculum. The average constable remains insensitive to the protection and security needs of women. Even though women police stations have been established in many districts, they remain understaffed. Many of these police stations, especially in Sindh, have no legal mandate which leaves the female staff at these units clamoring for a better workplace environment. Cases of violence against women including sexual assault, rape, acid throwing, domestic abuse and, most notably, honor killings continue. The response of the police has been far less than desirable.

Yet all is not lost. Despite the lack of coherent policy, some brilliant performances have also been witnessed. Many women in rural Sindh have been taken into protective custody by the police through well-coordinated, proactive action. Investigations of cases of honor killing have been professionally handled as far as the arrest of the accused is concerned. The Sindh police have partnered actively with the Gender Justice Unit of the UNDP and actively administered an anti karo-kari project last year, focused on creating a database and a training manual for police officers, showing them methods of handling and investigating karo-kari cases. However, much remains to be done. What we need is a central policy geared towards making police organizations more gender responsive from within the organization and also for victims and their families. Police organizations should realize that security concerns for both men and women require different protection policies. They need to see women as beneficial of improving security and law and order, and only then will they be able to formulate policies that ensure the mainstreaming of women into the police. These steps could then ensure an effective strategy for properly addressing the issues of gender-based violence in which women are often victims.

Opportunities for the integration of gender issues

_ National attention and financial support can influence the reform process to be sensitive to the needs of men and women, particularly provincial police forces acting as role models.

_ Altered gender roles and social structures provide a space for more women to consider the police as a professional opportunity.

_ Extensive reform of the police service provides the opportunity to set targets for female recruitment, vet recruits for GBV, and integrate gender issues into new policies and protocols, operational programming and training.

_ There may be an increased number of women available for employment with the police – including women heading and supporting households, and female former combatants.

_ Due to the high levels of GBV in conflict and post-conflict environments, there may be impetus to set up specialized units to address violence against women and children.

Representative police service

_ Creating a police service that is representative of the population it seeks to serve – in terms of ethnicity, sex, religion, language, tribal affiliation etc. – increases the credibility, trust and legitimacy of the service in the eyes of the public.

_ A representative police service increases operational effectiveness, through access to a broad range of skills, experiences, education and culture, which maximizes the ability to deliver local solutions to local problems.

_ Women often bring specific skills and strengths to police work, such as the ability to defuse potentially violent situations, minimize the use of force and employ good communication skills. In certain contexts, female officers are necessary to perform the cordon and search of women, widen the net of intelligence gathering and assist victims of GBV.

_ Globally, men are currently greatly over-represented in the police service. Specific initiatives are therefore needed to increase the recruitment, retention and advancement of female personnel.

Non-discriminatory and human rights promoting police service

_ Eliminating discrimination and human rights violations, such as sexual harassment and rape, by police personnel against civilians and co-workers will help create an effective and productive work environment.

_ Discriminatory attitudes of police personnel can prevent equal access to police services. In many countries, women report that the police are insensitive and may fail to adequately investigate gender-based crimes. Gender responsive policies, protocols and capacity building can increase police professionalism and access to police services.

Gender-sensitive policies, protocols and procedures

_ Develop and implement specific protocols/procedures to investigate, prosecute and support victims of GBV.

_ Establish gender-responsive codes of conduct and policies on discrimination, sexual harassment and violence perpetrated by police officers, and internal and external reporting mechanisms that can receive complaints.

_ Vet police recruits for histories of GBV, including domestic violence.

_ Create incentive structures to award gender-responsive policing along with respect for human rights.

_ Review operational frameworks, protocols, and procedures with:

a) Existing women’s police associations and other police personnel associations to identify the current situation and reforms required.

b) Community policing boards, civil society organizations, including women’s groups and survivors of violence, to identify needed reforms and to ensure that protocols and procedures are responsive to community needs.

Women’s police stations/domestic violence units

_ Consider establishing women’s police stations or specific units on GBV in order to encourage more victims to file complaints and improve police responses to GBV

Gender training

_ Integrate gender issues into the basic training given to all police personnel, including civilian staff.

_ Provide mandatory and comprehensive training on gender sensitivity and sexual harassment for all police personnel.

_ Offer in-depth, skill-building training on specific gender topics, such as interviewing victims of human trafficking and protocols for responding to domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault.

Recruitment, retention and advancement of female personnel

_ Consider establishing strategic targets for female recruitment and retention.

_ Update recruitment policies and practices to ensure they are attracting a full range of qualified individuals, including from under-represented groups.

_ Update job descriptions to accurately reflect the skills required in modern policing.

_ Revise and adapt human resources policies to ensure they are non-discriminatory, gender sensitive and family-friendly.

_ Establish female police associations and mentor programs

_ Review job assessment standards and promotion criteria for discrimination. Implement performance-based assessment reviews.

_ Ensure equal access to job training for career advancement.

Civil society oversight and collaboration

_ Consider community-based policing as an effective strategy for providing security and working collaboratively with the community, including civil society organizations such as women’s groups (e.g. through joint training and patrolling).

_ Establish referral systems for police to put victims in contact with community services including women’s organizations.

_ Create or strengthen civilian oversight mechanisms, such as community police boards, in order to increase public trust and establish formal channels of communication between the police and the community.

_ Build the capacity of civil society organizations to effectively monitor the police for human rights violations.

_ Police institutions are often suspicious of civil society organizations and are reluctant to work with them.

_ National police often work in difficult conditions without equipment and with poor pay, while still being expected to carry out their changing mandates, often resulting in a reluctance to prioritize reform processes, including gender reforms.

_ Commitment to gender-responsive police reform diminishes as crime begins to rise and police return to oppressive ways of addressing crime, disadvantaging certain groups in society.

_ The national police force are not the only agents involved in policing – private security companies, militias and armed non-state actors need to be included in gender-responsive security sector reform efforts.

References

1-Wikipedia

2-Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces

3-The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

Against Women (CEDAW, 1979).

4-The VIP Guide: Vision, Innovation and Professionalism in Policing Violence Against Women and Children, 2001

5-Promoting Safer Communities by Integrating Research and Practice, 2004.

6-Recruiting and Retaining Women: A Self-Assessment Guide for Law Enforcement, 2001.

US lawmakers push to get US out of Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, it is time to end the war in Afghanistan and bring US troops home, several Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives demanded on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama will begin drawing down some of the 100,000 troops in Afghanistan in July, with all combat forces due out by 2014. That timetable is unacceptable to a growing number of war-weary US lawmakers, who argue that the death of the al Qaeda leader is an opportunity for the United States to recalibrate its strategy.
”The successful mission that located and killed Osama bin Laden has raised many questions about the effectiveness of America’s strategy to combat terrorism through a now 10-year-old nation-building effort in a deeply corrupt Afghanistan, especially in light of the serious fiscal challenges we face at home,” Reps. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican, and Democrat Peter Welch wrote in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday.
They said it would be more effective to use ”a targeted, worldwide counterterrorism strategy similar to the intelligence and special operations mission that located and killed bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this month.”
Chaffetz and Welch planned to offer an amendment to the defense bill for withdrawing ground troops from Afghanistan. A group of eight Republicans and Democrats were pushing another measure to accelerate the transition from US to Afghan control of operations.
While the amendments were unlikely to pass, the votes expected Thursday were certain to provide a measure of the congressional opposition to the war _ numbers that will not go unnoticed at the Pentagon and White House.
For a second day Wednesday, the House debated the broad, $690 billion defense blueprint that would provide a 1.6 percent increase in military pay, fund an array of aircraft, ships and submarines, slightly increase health care fees for working-age retirees and meet the Pentagon’s request for $119 billion to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still fuming over Obama’s lack of extensive consultation with lawmakers before launching air strikes against Libya in March, the House adopted an amendment that says nothing in the bill could be construed as Congress authorizing the military operation in Libya.
”The president must firmly come to this Congress to seek authorization,” said Republican Rep. Scott Garrett, sponsor of the amendment.
Separately, in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, three Republican lawmakers complained about Obama’s decision not to follow the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which says the president can send troops into combat for only 60 days without congressional approval. That legal deadline for a full-blown authorization expired last Friday.
”Whatever the scope of the fight, our armed forces deserve, at the very least, a conversation between the president and Congress to explain why it is critical we send them into harm’s way,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, also a Republican.
Obama told Congress last week that he would welcome a resolution backing the limited US involvement in the NATO-led military campaign.
By voice vote, the House adopted an amendment that would extend whistle-blower protection to members of the military who speak up about ”ideologically based threats” by fellow service members that they believe could undermine US security.
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, sponsor of the measure, cited the shooting rampagee at Fort Hood, Texas, and the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. A Pentagon review found Hasan’s supervisors expressed concerns about his behavior but failed to heed their own warnings.
Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the November 2009 shooting spree on the Texas military post.
The House also voted to stop a White House effort to require anyone seeking government contracts to disclose political contributions. Obama’s disclosure order, drafted in April, has not yet been issued, but reports about the order have upset Republicans and some Democrats.
”Government agencies should award contracts based on merit and value to taxpayers _ not politics,” said Republican Rep. Tom Cole, the amendment’s sponsor. The measure passed on a vote of 261-163.
House Republican leaders hope to finish the defense bill on Thursday, but first must plow through 152 amendments, several to eliminate disputed items in the bill that have drawn the threat of a presidential veto.
Provisions in the bill would limit Obama’s authority to transfer terrorist suspects from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to foreign countries. The bill also bars transfer of detainees to facilities in the United States, even for trial.
The administration said the bill’s provision ”is a dangerous and unprecedented challenge to critical executive branch authority to determine when and where to prosecute detainees, based on the facts and the circumstances of each case and our national security interest